Real Talk with Tina and Ann
Tina and Ann met as journalists covering a capital murder trial, 15 years ago. Tina has been a tv and radio personality and has three children. Ann has a master's in counseling and has worked in the jail system, was a director of a battered woman's shelter/rape crisis center, worked as an assistant director at a school for children with autism, worked with abused kids and is currently raising her three children who have autism. She also is autistic and was told would not graduate high school, but as you can see, she has accomplished so much more. The duo share their stories of overcoming and interview people who are making it, despite what has happened. This is more than just two moms sharing their lives. This is two women who have overcome some of life's hardest obstacles. Join us every Wednesday as we go through life's journey together. There is purpose in the pain and hope in the journey.
Episodes
Silence can keep you alive, until it starts taking your life from the inside. We sit down with International Award Winner, Rich Dunning, author of Silence Was My First Language, and trace the path from a childhood in the Bronx surrounded by poverty, evictions, and relentless violence to the hard-won beginnings of a future he refused to surrender.
Rich shares what it’s like to live under an abusive stepf...
Ann sits down with Jodee Kulp to tell her daughter Liz’s story and to pull out the practical lessons families need when they are raising a child with FASD, , trauma histories, or any kind of neurodivergence.
We talk talk about strength-based opportunities that helped Liz create meaning, and how the disability system can still punish competence by threatening supports the moment someone shows what they c...
A child can be hospitalized, overwhelmed by noise and light, judged for “behavior,” and still find a way to sparkle. We’re joined by Jodee Kulp, author, speaker, and longtime fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) advocate, to talk about her daughter Liz and the reality of living with prenatal alcohol exposure. Liz’s life refuses the usual storyline of limits: she creates workarounds on top ...
Shame thrives in silence, and FASD has been surrounded by silence for far too long. We pick up Part Two of my conversation with RJ Formanek, where we get honest about what living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder actually feels like day to day: the hidden resilience, the crashes, the relationships that only go so far when “I love you” feels unsafe, and the long work of becoming okay with yourself.&nbs...
The most dangerous myth about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is that you can “tell” by looking at someone. We sit down with RJ Formanek, founder of Flying With Broken Wings and co-creator of Red Shoes Rock, to talk about what FASD actually looks like across a lifetime and why so many adults live for decades without a diagnosis, support, or even the right words for what’s happening in their ...
Calm is not always comforting. When you have lived in survival mode, quiet can feel like a threat, your mind can get louder as the room gets still, and “peace” can feel like something reserved for other people. We sit down with Ann as she shares updates on her writing and then reads a striking excerpt from her memoir Loving Differently, built around one core idea: peace is not dramatic, and it is not som...
You can be accomplished, capable, and still feel like you’re barely holding it together. That’s the reality for so many women with ADHD, especially when a lifetime of masking makes the struggles invisible to everyone else.
We’re joined by Dr. Jennifer Dahl, founder of ADHD Holistically and a grief-informed neurodivergence specialist, to talk about what late-diagnosed ADHD really looks like a...
We talk with life coach and TEDx speaker Randi Crawford about why teen anxiety is skyrocketing and how parents accidentally train kids to avoid discomfort. We share practical ways to build resilience, accountability, and trust so kids can handle real life without shame.
• why “rescuing” quietly weakens confidence and grit
• letting natural consequences do the teaching
• the pic...
We sit with writer Sophia Lorenzi as she tells the story of losing her dad to suicide and the shock of how “normal” things can look right before a crisis turns fatal. We also trace how her grief shaped her work as a death row investigator and why her writing insists on nuance, dignity, and seeing the whole person.
• how suicide risk can stay invisible even with treatment
• why “su...
Anxiety can make you feel like you’re the only one struggling while you’re surrounded by people. That isolation gets worse when mental health support is expensive, hard to schedule, or simply not available where you live. We wanted a conversation that’s honest about those barriers and also practical about what to do next, so we sat down with Tamar Blue, founder and CEO of Mental Happy, a HIPAA-comp...
Life can fracture in a single moment, and the crack line often becomes the date we measure everything against: before and after. We’re reflecting on a powerful conversation with Tim Smith, author of Fault Line Still Standing, whose own fault line began with a kidnapping at six years old. His story opens the door to a bigger question many of us carry: if we didn’t choose the trauma, how do we choose what ...
A single morning can redraw the map of a child's entire life.
At six years old, Tim Smith woke up believing he was getting a day off from school. Instead, it became the day that changed everything. In this powerful conversation, Tim, author of Fault Line Still Standing, shares the moment he calls his "fault line" and what happens when the people who are supposed to protect you become the source of fear, silence, and ...
We break down how leaders can co-regulate or co-disregulate a team, and why tiny shifts in structure can radically change safety and performance for neurodivergent professionals. We also read a love letter that names the cost of masking and the strengths workplaces miss when they demand one “normal” way of thinking.
• co-regulation from managers through tone, posture, pacing and preparation
• ...
In this episode, Ann interviews Jessica Lee from Neuro Talent Works and Melody Valenzuela from Rapport Educational. Together, they challenge the idea that workplace success means fitting into old systems, then map out how to redesign hiring and team norms so neurodivergent people can do their best work. We get practical about interviews, executive functioning, cognitive load, and the small supports that reduce stres...
Have you ever walked into a room and felt yourself switch on a “socially acceptable” version of you before you even said hello? We’re naming that experience for what it is: masking, the practiced art of blending in to stay safe. We talk about how masking shows up for neurodivergent adults (including autism, sensory needs, and rehearsed social cues), and why it also shows up after divorce, addiction...
What if the reason you struggle to use your voice has very little to do with speaking—and everything to do with what you've lived through?
After the unimaginable suffering of World War I, one man's search to heal his own trauma became the foundation for a movement that has helped generations of people rediscover their authentic voices. His work was passed from teacher to teacher until it eventually reached jazz...
Your voice is more than the words that come out of your mouth. It tells the story of what you learned was safe, what you learned would be punished, and what you believed would finally make you seen. Sometimes "finding your voice" isn't about becoming more confident. It's about healing the parts of yourself that learned it was safer to stay silent.
In this deeply personal episode, Ann reflects on her conversation with...
Erin Simpson on Trauma-Informed Education, Mental Health, Autism, ADHD, and Helping Every Child Thrive
A child melts down in class and the adult response is almost automatic: calm down, make a better choice, try harder. We want better outcomes, but those words often land on a nervous system that’s already in fight, flight, or freeze. Today we’re joined by Erin Simpson, principal of Grizzly Aca...
A single quote sparks a hard truth: the longer we hold on to pain, the heavier it becomes. We talk through emotional weight, how survival and masking become habits, and why healing starts when we decide some things no longer belong on our shoulders.
• the quote that frames the whole message: holding on makes things heavier
• emotional weight we carry: shame, fear, resentment, disappointment, pressu...
A family gets 48 hours to leave Cuba and suddenly everything becomes a decision made under fear. We sit down with author and journalist Anna Hebra Flaster for Part 2 of her story, and what unfolds is equal parts heartbreaking and darkly funny, from translating “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to realizing how quickly a new country can turn “difference” into a test you have to pass.
We ...
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